Among the effects of the NHL lockout was the loss of the All-Star Game, which had been scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 26, in Columbus, Ohio. That eliminated potential opportunities for the Wild's Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and Mikko Koivu.

"I don't think you're going to find too many guys in here (Wild locker room) who are going to be sad about it," Parise said, adding that players are just glad to be back playing in a regular season.

The scouting report on Wild rookie Mikael Granlund is that the centerman sees the whole ice like Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio sees the whole basketball court. Both are terrific passers.

Granlund, 20, is from Finland; Rubio, 22, is from Spain.

Granlund said he's aware of Rubio.

"I watch the Timberwolves, especially Rubio," Granlund said. "I think he's a great player, but I'm not as great as him."

Mathew Dumba won't turn 19 until July, but the 6-foot, 185-pound defenseman who made the Wild roster out of the abbreviated training camp isn't shy on the ice.

"Being physical and mean, that's how I like to play," Dumba said after practice the other day.

Mean?

"Just going into the corners with aggression, boxing out hard in front of the net," said the Wild's 2012 first-round draft pick.

Last season, Dumba scored 10 goals with 13 assists in 43 games for the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League. Nearly as notable, he had 55 penalty minutes.

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"In the Western League, I get to use the physical part of the game on a night-to-night basis," he said. "I don't want to change my game in a sense up here, just hinder it a bit. These are big guys, and they're all men, so there's a different approach to go into it."

For Red Deer, Dumba had two fights.

"I don't know if I won -- one was pretty quick, the other one was a bigger guy, but I fared well."

Although he's in the big leagues now and will play against NHL veterans, Dumba won't back off of fights.

"I know how to fight, and I'm not scared of that," he said. "I'm not too worried about the pretty looks or anything like that. I'm sure I won't back down. But they're all strong guys who have a man's strength."

That could be tough for an 18-year-old.

"Maybe the one thing I've got going for me is endurance and the younger age," he said with a smile.

As long as he remains in the NHL this season, Dumba's contract will be worth $1.6 million, including bonuses. If he's sent to the American Hockey League's Houston Aeros for seasoning, he'll play for a salary of $70,000. For the Wild, his salary is $925,000.

"You try to get it up as high as you can and see how fast you can recover," he said.

Want to be an NHL play-by-play broadcaster? Both announcers for Sunday's Wild-Dallas Stars game in St. Paul -- Anthony La Panta and Ralph Strangis -- are Totino-Grace High graduates.

Wild prospects:Mario Lucia has six goals and five assists in 14 games for Notre Dame; Louis Nanne has 13 goals and 13 assists in 31 games for Penticton of the British Columbia Hockey League.

The North Dakota men's hockey team, which played the Gophers this weekend at Mariucci Arena, has 13 Canadians; the Gophers have none.

It would seem prudent for the Wild to try to hire defenseman Ryan Suter's father, Bob, a member of the gold medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team who develops talent in Madison, Wis., as a scout.

No one could be happier about the end of the NHL lockout than people at the St. Paul Hotel, where visiting teams stay when they play the Wild.

Norm Green, who moved the North Stars to Texas, hosted an outing at Dallas National Golf Club for longtime Stars employees the other day and showed North Stars and Dallas Stars highlight videos.

Green continues to reside in Dallas and attends most Stars games.

Blaine resident Jerry Seeman, who has refereed two Super Bowls, will be the NFL officials evaluator for Sunday's game between the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots.

Look for Mike Spanier of Sartell, Minn., to be selected to officiate the NFL's Pro Bowl in Honolulu on Jan. 27.

Ex-Gopher MarQueis Gray is expected to work out with tight ends and wideouts Feb. 21-22 at the NFL combine in Indian--apolis.

Jim Rantz and Tim Tschida have been added to the head table for the Original Old-Timers Hot Stove banquet Tuesday at the Prom Center in Oakdale, joining Joe Mauer, Bert Blyleven, Cole De Vries, Terry Ryan, Tom Kelly, John Anderson, Dick Bremer and Greg Skrypek. For tickets, call 651-379-2325.

Fifty years ago Thursday, co-pilot Harold Gifford of Woodbury and the Minneapolis Lakers took off from Lambert Field in St. Louis at 8 p.m. during a storm to return to the Twin Cities after a game. The plane lost all electrical power shortly after takeoff and was in the air for 5 1/2 hours before Gifford and his crew landed safely in a cornfield near Carroll, Iowa, aided by the city's bright lights. All 23 passengers survived.

On Friday morning, Gifford received an email from a Carroll resident that said he had left his porch light on the night before to honor the famous 1960 landing.

Gifford has written a book, "Miracle Landing," about the stress-filled flight. It is to be available in about a month.

Counting more than 1,000 NCAA institutions at all levels, the University of St. Thomas is the first to win its first 14 football games and first 14 men's basketball games in the same school year. The Tommies have moved up to No. 1 nationally in Division III and could be on their way to a second NCAA title in three years.

If attendance at Sunday's Gophers women's basketball game against Nebraska at Williams Arena reaches 5,000, coach Pam Borton has said she will donate $1,000 each to five charities.

DON'T PRINT THAT

Frank Quilici managed the Twins for four seasons (1972-75) against the Baltimore Orioles, who were managed by hall of famer Earl Weaver. Weaver died Saturday at age 82.

"It was a stage show," Quilici, 73, said Saturday of managing against Weaver. "Managers used to hit umpires (during arguments) in the throat with the bill of their caps. Earl got fined for it, so he turned his cap around and got in their face. He was colorful, and that was his style. He was good for baseball. People liked him -- that's how they endured Billy (former manager Billy Martin) for so long. Billy was intense, and Earl was, too."

St. Paul's Bobby Johnson, 76, played four seasons for the Orioles but not for Weaver. Johnson, who was an Orioles teammate of Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer, got to know Weaver as a participant in the Orioles' winter fantasy camps in Sarasota, Fla.

"The one who will really miss Earl will be Palmer," Johnson said. "They used to have some pretty good go-arounds. Palmer would say something, and Weaver would come right back at him. But it was all in good fun."

By the way, Weaver said at Cooperstown, N.Y., a couple of years ago when Bert Blyleven was inducted into the Hall of Fame that he believed Tom Kelly, who managed the Twins to World Series championships in 1987 and 1991, is worthy of the Hall of Fame.

Look for former Cretin-Derham Hall assistant football coach Andy Bischoff, 40, to be named tight-ends coach by new Chicago Bears head coach Marc Trestman, a former Gophers quarterback.

Why depth is important: In the No. 9 Gophers' 83-75 loss to No. 5 Michigan at Williams Arena on Thursday, Minnesota's Maverick Ahanmisi and Oto Osenieks combined for four turnovers while playing just four minutes apiece. The Gophers' entire bench had seven of the team's 15 turnovers while playing just 43 of the game's 200 minutes.

Plans are for Jack Jablonski, who suffered a spinal cord injury while playing hockey for Benilde-St. Margaret's more than a year ago, to make his hockey broadcasting debut Tuesday as Fox Sports North analyst for the BSM-Elk River game.

It looks as if ex-Gophers wrestler Brock Lesnar could end up with a new one-year deal to return to World Wrestling Entertainment.

Lindsay Whalen, the Gophers women's basketball team's all-time leading scorer and a star for the Lynx, had 425 points as a freshman guard and 667 as a sophomore for a 1,092 total. Current Gophers sophomore guard Rachel Banham scored 580 points as a freshman, and, with at least 12 games left this season, has 371 points and a two-season running total of 951.

Matt Birk isn't the only St. Paul native with a chance to get a Super Bowl championship ring this season for the Baltimore Ravens. Roger Erickson also could get one.

Birk, who lives in Mendota Heights, is the Ravens' center. Erickson, who operates a training studio for professional, college and high school athletes in St. Paul, is the Ravens' speed and flexibility coach. Local clients include Jack Hannahan of the Cincinnati Reds. Erickson has trained Birk for more than 20 years.

Erickson was home a few days last week but was to return to Baltimore on Friday, then leave Saturday with the Ravens for Foxborough, Mass., for Sunday's NFC title game against New England.

"It's been good. (The Ravens) appreciate what I do," said Erickson, 59.

OVERHEARD

Wing Zach Parise on defenseman Ryan Suter and him signing with the Wild: "This team already had great players. Ryan and I just want to be pieces to a team that we feel is going to be very good."